Moving from Hanover to Berlin one summer during the pandemic, Clemens and Lisa decide to throw a farewell party and invite their friends. She is studying to be a doctor’s assistant, he is a talented musician stuck in a melancholy phase. Their good intentions are dashed when their friends change their plans at short notice and uninvited guests arrive in their place. The subsequent dinner party conjures up a symphony of pretty big conflicts, drives, longings, resentments and despair, unfolding for the hosts as well as their guests. 

The chamber play-like film by German director Lukas Nathrath was shot in one week on a single location, but the idea itself is directly linked to the uncertainty of the time he spent in a residency in Basel during the pandemic. Somewhat reminiscent of the early works of Thomas Vinterberg, the film’s protagonists’ outward cordiality soon gives way to crassness, shattering the viewer’s first impressions of them. Using improvisational techniques, the director has created scenes together with the actors and cinematographer Philip Jestädt, capturing the traits of the millennial generation.